Warm discussion on a cold night

On November 14th, the Columbus Death Café met at the Lavash Café in Clintonville. The 14 participants were a diverse group with a wide range in ages (20’s to 60’s), backgrounds, and spiritual beliefs with a few describing themselves as atheists and agnostic, setting the tone for a thought-provoking night.

The dialogue was sometimes funny, often touching. One person read an excerpt from the popular book “Stiff” leading to a discussion about dark humor, grief and coping skills. Others discussed buckets lists, loss of pets, and an emerging trend of celebrating someone’s life before they die rather than after, at the funeral. A social worker mentioned she heard someone grumble, “today’s just another day”, and shortly thereafter visited a hospice patient desperately wishing for “just one more day”. A pediatric professional witnessed dying children seeing “angels” who were “helping” them and was amazed by their joy and complete lack of fear.

Although the room was a crisp 63 degrees, the group barely noticed as they shared their experiences over warm tea and delicious food. One gentleman traveled 180 miles from Indianapolis to attend the Columbus Death Café and, at the conclusion, shared with us how he wished he could have these discussions with his family and friends. Sounds like Indianapolis needs a Death Café!

The facilitators of this program believe talking about death is to talk about life, to find perspective and to open us up to the possibilities in each moment. We look forward to future meetings. - Linda